The Frame

Serial killer movies fascinate me, especially the ones where the killer leaves clues to his identity to taunt the police. So I was totally primed to love David Fincher’s Zodiac. I think without a rewatch, I’m going to say that I liked it a lot, and it was extremely well-done, but I’m not sure I loved it. Probably because I wasn’t quite expecting what I got–which is not a bad thing, and in fact, my guess is that when I rewatch it at some point, I will love it. Jake Gyllenhaal does realy well as the rookie journalist (cartoonist, really), who’s drawn to the puzzle and ends up devoting his life to obsessing over it. I can’t really discuss what threw me off without spoiling the ending, but the doubling and ambiguity that I usually love so much didn’t quite win me over this time, again, probably because I wasn’t expecting it. I was afraid at one point that it was going to devolve into survival horror–I’m very glad it didn’t, but that was also one of the more compelling, interesting scenes. I’m rambling now, because I’m trying to identify what didn’t completely work for me, and failing–which indicates that it was probably my failure and not the film’s, so the benefit of the doubt it gets.
Well Above Average